Johannesburg - A three-year-old boy remained in critical condition after his father stabbed him, held him hostage for hours then flung him from the sixth floor of his Hillbrow flat.
Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital spokeswoman Lungiswa Mvumvu said the child was still in ICU on Wednesday night.
His mother, who was also attacked by her husband, is in the same hospital in a serious but stable condition.
“She is conscious but is still drowsy following surgery. The family representative has requested us not to give out their names and to allow them some privacy as they are also mourning the death of the father,” said Mvumvu. The family declined to comment on Wednesday night.
The father died after jumping from the flat and was apparently also shot by the police.
It started with a fight at home in the Crestview flat at about 5pm on Tuesday.
“A man had an argument with his wife and he stabbed both his wife and son with a sharp object in the lower body,” said Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Tsekiso Mofokeng.
The mother, 33, escaped and called the police. Hostage negotiators tried for several hours to negotiate the son’s release but were unsuccessful.
“At about 1.15am, the man threw the child from the sixth-floor balcony to the ground. He then jumped,” said Mofokeng. “The man was certified dead on the scene; the wife and child were admitted to hospital.”
A witness, Tamara Xambela, said she couldn't believe how the man had been able to keep police at bay from late afternoon until 1am.
“He had had an argument with the son’s mother and stabbed her in her abdomen before locking himself and their son on the balcony.
“Although the police were pleading with him to calm down and open the door, he told them that if they tried to do anything, he was going to throw the child off the balcony,” she said.
The man was on the balcony when a scream from a horrified resident alerted him to the police climbing down from the top of the building.
“He saw the police officers coming down on ropes and threw their son off the balcony and jumped off himself,” said Xambela.
Hillbrow resident Lerato Mzileni said the man had thrown the child and was jumping when police shot him.
Onlookers had put mattresses on the ground, but it wasn't known whether the child landed on them.
“They really wanted to save his life. He is very tiny,” said Mzileni.
The Star